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Originally Posted by Savvy27
It seems to me that you are off-base with your impressions here. I think you are over-stating the proportion of extremely desperate prostitutes and under-stating the abuse experienced by a typical prostitute.
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It already is illegal to abuse a prostitute and legal to be a prostitute. A better system would be to emphasize to prostitutes that they can come to the police without legal ramifications against themselves.
In addition, violence agaisnt prostitutes in places like Amsterdam has not stopped merely because it is legal.
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
Also, the phrase "willingly chose to be prostitutes" is vague. Are you talking about women who are desperate for income and without marketable skills that resort to selling their bodies, or do you mean women who are literally forced into prostitution by pimps? Not that it matters either way. If a prostitute is in a bad situation and is aware that there are regulated, safe working conditions, then they are put in a situation where they can choose to go work at a regulated service, rather than stay where they are.
It is unfair to put a condition on changing these laws that every prostitute has to take advantage of the change, or it's not worth doing it. This would be a positive change for working prostitutes and, if well-implemented, would lead to a better and safer work environment.
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If by better work environment you mean they are forced into brothels by intrenational pimps....because that is what has happened in every jurisdiction in the world where prostitution is legal. Why would it be different here?
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
Are you saying that prostitutes are falling victim to violence because of drug use and mental health issues? Limiting this part to health care, I'm referring to things like employee health benefits that people working in other fields enjoy.
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If you knew anything about the homeless problem, you would now that druge use and mental health issues are extremely common. That is what I am saying. Many of the people on the streets suffer from a combination of the above.
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
As for mental health issues, they are disconnected from prostitution (as you say) so they have nothing to do with this argument. And I'm not sure at all what you mean by psychological damage and what it has to do with reporting violence or health care.
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Mental health issues are not disconnected from prostitution. Many women end up on the streets or unable to hold down a job due to mental health issues and then are forced into prostitution out of desperation.
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
On the other hand, it's also possible drug use might be a symptom of the harsh working and living conditions of prostitutes. If these conditions are improved, I think that there would be a marked decrease in drug use amongst prostitutes. Or, perhaps legalization will lead to a culture change in the prostitution industry and the numbers of drug users would go down.
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right.....That is an accurate reflection of how drug addicts work
. We can regulate the industry and throw some money at the problem and it will just vanish into thin air. Why didn't anyone else eveeeeeer think of that?
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
The issue of prostitution is inseparable from the issues of pimps and brothels. It is a mystery to me how you can absolutely deny the benefits of regulation. You've written that you don't think regulation of brothels and pimps would benefit hookers at all. Then you disregard comments about health inspections, safe working environment, etc.
Pimps and brothels ARE being addressed through the decriminalization of prostitution related activities (soliciting and operating a bawdy house).
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Regulation isnt' the problem. It's allowing brothels and pimps to operate legally on a larger scale that is the problem. It has been tried in many countries all over the world. It doesn't stop violence. All it does is increase the amount of sex slaves.
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Originally Posted by Savvy27
Even if the stigma remains, there are degrees of intensity. I would imagine that if prostitution becomes a regulated, professionally run industry, attitudes will change among many people as time goes by.
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Attitudes will never change. Like I said before, pornography has been a regulated and legalized industry for a long time. Porn stars are extremely stigmatized. You have sex for money and people lose respect for you. That is just the way it is.